December 19th Newsletter

                    

 Important Dates

December

          19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

          22 – Winter Break Begins

January

          5 - Classes Resume

          16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

          19 – No School

– Martin Luther King’s Birthday

December Reading Logs

          Your child can return his/her December reading log on January 5 when we return from the holiday break.  I am sending home January’s log on December 19 so you can begin recording the books they read in January starting January 1. 

Cookie Exchange

     Thank you to everyone who took the time to bake cookies and send in food for the cookie exchange.  It was all very delicious.  My children were thrilled with the cookies (and so was I)!

We won’t be having any homework this week due to the holidays.  Enjoy the break!

Reading

    This past week we read Amelia Earhart by Caroline Crosson Gilpin. We worked on facts and opinions, and compared Amelia to ourselves.  We also went through the text looking for the different text features that a nonfiction book may contain, such as captions, table of contents, headings, index, etc.

          The vocabulary words for this story were:

        Pilot, aviation, navigator, and career

The week of January 5^th:

          We will be reading the book, Me and My Place in Space.  The children will be working on making connections.

Phonics Skills

          Our phonics lessons will be centered around blending long i words.  We will also review the soft sound of “g” /j/ and “c” /s/.

Grammar Skills

          We will practice using pronouns in sentences.

Spelling Words

The spelling words are:

six, pad, smell, bike, time, smile, prize, like, have, bridesmaid

Have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!

December 12th Newsletter

                    

 Important Dates

December

            16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

            19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

            22 – Winter Break Begins

January

             5- Classes Resume

December Reading Logs

    Your child can return his/her December reading log on January 5 when we return from the holiday break.  I am sending home January’s log on December 19 so you can begin recording the books your child reads in January starting January 1. 

Barnes & Noble Fundraiser

     It looked like the Barnes & Noble fundraiser was a success.  I was able to help out from 7:00-8:00 and saw several students from past classes.  I can’t believe how much they have grown!    

     Thank you to everyone that attended or helped out in any way.  Our school district is very fortunate to have such supportive and giving parents.

     We won’t be having a student of the week next week since we will be having our holiday party on Friday.

Spelling Words

Our spelling words for next week are: ran, hat, scar, came, grape, name, cake, only, old, baseball

     In math, we have been working on using addition problems to help us solve subtraction problems.  Our test over Topic 6 will be on Friday, December 12.  Next week we will take a pretest for Topic 7 and will work on centers and reviewing what we have learned.  We will begin Topic 7 when we come back from break in January.

***There won’t be any math homework next week due to the holidays.  Enjoy!

Reading

          This past week we read Liberty Rising, the Story of the Statue of Liberty.  We completed a K-W-L chart at the beginning of the week to see what we Knew, what we Wanted to know, and what we had Learned.  The text was difficult, but the children paid attention and participated in discussions, often making connections to things that have happened in their lives.  The vocabulary words for this book were:  monument, several, suffering, constructed, contributions, miniature, spectacular, and magnificent

Next week we will be reading a book about Amelia Earhart. 

Grammar Skills

          We will practice using and identifying verbs in a sentence.

Have a great weekend!

December 5th Newsletter

            

 Important Dates

December

          16 – Early Dismissal – 12:00

          19 – Classroom Holiday Party – 2:00

          22 – Winter Break Begins

January

            5- Classes Resume

Author of the Month/Computers 

 Our author of the month for December is Chris Van Allsburg. He wrote The Polar Express and many other books. We explored his website and listened to a video about him.

Many of his books have a “twist” at the end.  We have been using picture clues and inferring skills to help us understand his stories.  The children are beginning to pick up on the clues that he gives throughout his books. 

Winter Holiday Party

  Our holiday party will be on Dec. 19 from 2:00-3:00.  Parent helpers will be allowed in the room at 1:50.  (No siblings are allowed due to limited space.)

FYI - all first grade classrooms will not be doing a gift exchange this year.  The teachers have purchased a small gift for each child in their own classroom.

    

 Our student of the week for the week of December 8-12 will be Kayla.

Math

     This past week we have been working on subtraction strategies, such as using an addition problem to help solve a subtraction problem.

            6+7=13, then 13-7=6 

We have also worked on fact families.

6,7,13

6+7=13

7+6=13

13-6=7

13-7=6

     We have a set of 5 iPads to use within our classroom.  We used them this week to work on the math program called “xtramath.”  I sent home directions for your child to be able to use this program on your own computers at home also.

Phonics Skills

We will be reviewing short vowel sounds.

Grammar Lesson

We will review alphabetical order and discuss how to use a dictionary.

Spelling Words

The spelling words are:

sad, let, trip, blue, orange, gray, black, one, by, color

Have a fantastic weekend!